Murder of mother shocks a quiet Coolock suburb, writes Áine Kerr.
Neighbours pointed to the 40th birthday party banner still draped on the front door and wondered how a night of celebration in a quiet Coolock home had turned to tragedy for a 22-year-old mother.
Yesterday, instead of neighbours gathering to exchange Saturday night stories, they stared at a cordoned-off area guarded by gardaí,
On the pavement in front of the terraced houses on Adare Green, neighbours told how they had awoken to the sound of shots and the screech of a car driving off at speed.
No 17, where a quiet party of some 45 people had taken place only hours previously, was empty. An unfinished bottle of beer at the entrance to the house and a 40th birthday banner on the door told a story of a night's celebration.
However, the three cracks on a front livingroom window and the broken glass below the window sill told a story of how the celebrations had come to a tragic end.
"I was asleep, and thought I must have been dreaming when I heard four shots being fired. Then I heard a car skidding and screeching. I just presumed it was a robbed car going up the road," said a neighbour.
"It's every parent's worst nightmare when their kids go out, and you ask are they going to come home," said another neighbour Conor Sweeney.
Donna Cleary (22), the mother of a three-year-old, was on a night off from working as a canteen assistant with Irish Ferries.
The house where she was shot is only minutes from her parents' home where she lived.
Ms Cleary received injuries to the upper part of her body and died hours later in Beaumont hospital after up to six shots were fired into the livingroom of No 17 Adare Green.
Neighbours say they were unaware of any party such was the orderly manner in which it was held.
Their normal Saturday night changed, however, when several men attempted to gain entry to the party.
Thirty minutes after they were refused entry, they returned with a handgun and fired shots at random into No 17.
Yesterday morning, as 50 gardaí began the process of interviewing shocked party guests, the first bouquet of flowers was placed near the tape cordoning off the area where Ms Cleary was killed.
By afternoon, several girls had arrived to place flowers.
Supt Noel McLoughlin, who is leading the investigation from Coolock Garda station, likened the sympathy and outcry yesterday morning to an incident in 2002 when a local man, Alan Higgins (17), was stabbed.
He said the murder had occurred in a respectable area and affected families and neighbours who were innocent, hardworking people.
It was "the most horrific incident; it's the worst that's ever happened in my time".